The Polls Show Donald Trump Needs GOP Senators More Than They Need Him

The question in this race has always been what will a Donald Trump candidacy will do to down ballot candidates. Would the electorate sink them in an ocean of Trumpian stink? Or would they take the time to differentiate between Trump and the men and women running on the Republican line. The verdict won’t be in until November 8 but the trend is encouraging. Across the nation, GOP senatorial candidate are running well ahead of Donald Trump and in many cases they are winning in states where Trump is facing an electoral repudiation on the scale of George McGovern and Walter Mondale.

Case in point: Ohio.

Trump has been struggling Ohio. A poll today shows him tied with Clinton but one two days ago showed him down by nine. Obviously one or the other of those is wrong. The long term trend, though, shows a clear Clinton advantage.

There are other places with similar results. GOP candidates are leading in states where Clinton is beating Trump, like Nevada, North Carolina, and New Hampshire. In Pennsylvania, many polls give Clinton a double digit lead.

Pat Toomey is tied with Katie McGinty.

Even though Ron Johnson is trailing Russ Feingold in Wisconsin, Johnson is leading Trump by five points.

Trump has approached this election with the attitude that the GOP needs his star power to succeed. That idea is false to its core and it has always been obvious that it was false. Trump won the GOP primary with barely 40% of the vote (thank you, Reince Priebus) and never made any effort to build bridges with other candidates or with their supporters. While he has belittled the #NeverTrump movement as irrelevant, #NeverTrump now seems poised to send a resound message to Trump by having him utterly destroyed at the polls while returning GOP majorities to the House and Senate.